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Thursday, March 13, 2014

Tuesday night the Philadelphia City Planning Commission (PCPC) presented the draft design for the reconfiguration of Washington Avenue from Columbus Blvd to Grays Ferry Avenue. The project has a quick timetable: it could be completed this summer as part of the City's road resurfacing program.

Washington Avenue is an important east-west corridor street increasingly hemmed in by rapidly changing neighborhoods. Its industrial history may give way to mixed commercial, retail, and residential uses. That change is beginning to happen west of Broad, and a more pedestrian and bicycle-friendly street can only encourage that transition. (Whether that transition is in the best interests of Philadelphia's economy is not something we're qualified to assess.)

What is certain is that Washington Avenue sees too many injuries to pedestrians and bicyclists, and something must be done to lower those numbers.

Plans call for reducing most of Washington Ave from 4 lanes to 3 and adding back-in angle parking. More loading zones will be created to mitigate double parking in the bike lanes. Two exceptions to this: stretches from 13th to 16th, and from 5th to Columbus Avenue, will retain the current 4 lane and parallel parking configuration.

The entire corridor will include east-west standard (5 foot) bike lanes from end to end, bike boxes at Columbus, 22nd, and 11th streets, and bike racks at 9th, 10th and 11th Streets to accommodate bicycle shoppers in the Italian Market. The final striping plans are subject to discretion of the Streets Department, so the final result may vary from these plans.